£1-a-Day (2016) How Did We Do?

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Well, that’s it for 2016 where David and I have survived this year’s challenge of living on a £1 a day each, for food and drink, for seven days . We were also joined by Mark (Allan) from the Salvation Army for the majority of our evening meals, having contributed a proportionate 50p-per-visit to our funds.

We actually had 3p left over at the end too!

You have all been very generous, and after setting a realistic target of £350, as you can see, David and I actually raised (at this time of writing) £665 for this year’s Charity – the Salvation Army. In anyone’s book, that’s a fantastic amount of generosity! THANKS from both of us.

We are going to keep the JustGiving website open until the 30th September, because we know some of our friends were on holiday during the week in question and others have promised, but yet to contribute. You can use the link below to take you directly to the site, if you’re feeling in the mood.

As many of you know, this is the third year of ‘£1-a-day’ for me and bizarrely, it’s actually got a bit easier. Food generally, has dropped in price, allowing us a more varied menu (just!) and perhaps more importantly, my body adjusted to the reduction in food volume a lot quicker this time. Those rumbles you heard last Monday/Tuesday weren’t thunder or an earthquake – it was my stomach!

Quantity-wise with the food, as in previous years, we got it about right – and we actually had some change left over. As in previous years, we held back some money – just in case – and we introduced for the first time, the idea of a late-night-forage for bargains at Morrison’s. That turned out to be a good idea and we were able to pick up a few good deals making the overall menu a lot more interesting.

As the week progressed, we made a few tweaks to the original menu plan (mainly to avoid boredom and minimise repetition) and accommodating Mark for the evening meals with his proportional contribution was very straightforward – it’s also a bit easier – and motivational – to cook for three than for just one.

We used social media a lot more this year – Facebook (obviously), and Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram too. I’m not sure how much it all helped, but there was definitely a correlation with me posting photos of our meals, and donations following shortly afterwards. Setting-up a donations page with JustGiving.com was a great move and it certainly beats knocking-on doors with a sponsorship form! I did expect more donations via the text-giving option from JustGiving, but maybe that’s just because it’s a less well-known way to donate.

Thanks again everyone – you’ve been super-generous. Next year, as usual, I’ll be supporting a different charity – probably Help for Heroes.

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